package ca-certificates 20180409 failed to install/upgrade: installed ca-certificates package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1

[vjl]

Doing a 'do-release-upgrade', I received this error near the end. The install/upgrade did not finish as a result.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: ca-certificates 20180409
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-174.204-generic 4.4.211
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-174-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.11
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Mar 11 02:20:32 2020
ErrorMessage: installed ca-certificates package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-07-27 (1688 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 14.04.2 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20150218.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
Python3Details: /usr/bin/python3.6, Python 3.6.9, python3-minimal, 3.6.7-1~18.04
PythonDetails: /usr/bin/python2.7, Python 2.7.17, python-minimal, 2.7.15~rc1-1
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.19.0.5ubuntu2.3
 apt 1.6.12
SourcePackage: ca-certificates
Title: package ca-certificates 20180409 failed to install/upgrade: installed ca-certificates package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2020-03-11 (0 days ago)

[vjl (vjl)]

after receiving this error I ran:

wget http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/c/ca-certificates/ca-certificates_20170717~16.04.1_all.deb

Then I ran:

dpkg -i ca-certificates_20170717~16.04.1_all.deb

and finally:

dpkg --configure -a

which unpacked 20180409 over 20170717~16.04.1

However, I do not believe my server is in a good state. Postfix/dovecot are running fine, but an attempt to start apache 2:

Failed to start apache2.service: Unit apache2.service is masked.

I am unsure if I should reboot the server or not...